Armed criminals kill 2 guards, rob Assemblies of God Malawi Church
A gang of unidentified armed robbers has brutally murdered two security guards who were manning Assemblies of God Church premises at Kasungu Boma.
The robbers have also gone away with cash amounting to K78 000 and assorted items besides setting ablaze biblical books which were in the pastor’s office.
Kasungu Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, Burton Mathewe, said the incident occurred between 01:00hrs and 02:00hrs Thursday.
He identified the two as 63-year-old Kawoloka Phiri from Mbalu village, T/A Mkumba in Phalombe district and Elliot Chibwana, 79, who hailed from Jali village, T/A Mwambo in Zomba.
Mathewe said after arriving at the scene, the criminals jumped the church fence to attack a building contractor, Luka Kandiero, who was hired to construct a modern Assemblies of God Church and resides within the premises.
“On 7th August [Wednesday], the contractor withdrew money from the bank to pay his casual labourers today [Thursday]. But between 1.00am and 2.00am unspecified number of thugs believed to have been tipped that the contractor had cash went to his house to attack him.
“They jumped the church fence and captured the two security guards first before tying their arms and legs. Thereafter, they hit one of them in the head with a big stone and he died on the spot while the other guard was hacked with a panga knife also in the head,” explained Mathewe.
Afterward, the criminals went straight to Kandiero’s house where they demanded him to give them the money.
He said initially Kandiero resisted but he eventually gave up allowing the thugs to take away K78 000, three mobile phones, three trousers, three dresses, a ladies suit, DVD player, hammer and a saw.
And by the time police arrived at the incident’s scene the thugs had already fled the place.
As of early Thursday, one of the two guards was still missing and was discovered lying dead behind the church’s classrooms some few hours later.
According to Mathewe, a postmortem conducted at Kasungu District Hospital revealed that the two died due to severe loss of blood and internal bleeding.
“We are investigating the matter and we have intensified our hunt for them to ensure that they are brought to book to answer murder charges,” Mathewe told Nyasa Times.
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